


Dream Sweet Dreams

by cucumberbabie



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27447967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cucumberbabie/pseuds/cucumberbabie
Summary: David remembers a time when it was just him and his mother, before the money got in the way. Set near the beginning of the series.
Relationships: David Rose & Moira Rose
Comments: 9
Kudos: 29





	Dream Sweet Dreams

He’s like his mother, he knows. Alexis has always been closer with their father, always sought him out first whenever she needed money or short advice or anything else. He doesn’t have that same connection. For David, it’s always been his mother’s opinion that mattered: what he wore, how is gallery shows went, what parties he chose to attend. They’re not close, not in that respect. And Alexis isn’t close to their father. But there are distinct connections that creep out into the open every once in a while. David sees Moira Rose in a way that his sister doesn’t. He sees himself in her, and he sees her in himself, too.

Which is why tonight, on the very first night of the worst days of their lives, he lays as still as he can in the dark and listens.

He can hear his mother crying.

It’s not the overdramatic, shouting type of sobbing that she puts on for others. It’s two am. There’s no one to hear her. There’s no one to put on a show for. Their father is a heavy sleeper, as is Alexis (another thing they have in common). But David’s not quite yet been able to fall asleep and the walls are so thin. He didn’t mean to overhear her private anguish. But he hears it.

Their lives have been ripped out from under them and yet none of them are close enough to mourn together.

David remembers a time when life seemed almost... normal. When they were all under one roof, when his parents and sister spent time together. When he and his mother held the bond that he still secretly wished they did. When she was freer and more open, when he could go to her and know she would see him and hear him and love him. When he didn’t hide his emotions. Before the money got in the way.

One memory in particular- he must have been about four. (Once he began attending school, he saw less of his parents). It was a night like this one- cool and quiet and calm. A different type of crying pierced the air.  
  


* * *

_  
David jolts awake to the sound of wailing. He groans and flops over. The baby again. He knows his parents pay ‘very good money for Adelina to handle this sort of situation’. Where is she? The crying is incessant._

_He pushes back his covers and drops down from his bed. It’s his first big boy bed: a queen sized mattress against a stark oak headboard. He got it because he became a big brother to the new baby. He got a lot of things because he became a big brother. He didn’t care so much for the screaming baby, but he loved his new bed._

_His pajama pants trail along the floor as he pads out of his room towards the nursery across the hall. That had once been his room, apparently. He doesn’t remember it. The wailing has ceased to whimpering and he debates just going back to bed until he sees that the nursery doors are wide open, a soft light illuminating what looked to be blonde hair, instead of Adelina’s coarse black hair. His heart flutters. His mother never came down to this wing anymore!_

_Careful not to startle her, he tucks behind the large doors and peers at her. She is wearing her long black robe, the satin swishing on the marble flooring as she rocks the new baby in her arms. She is humming, David realises. His mother never hummed anymore. She used to hum a lot when he was younger, before the new baby. She would sing, too. She had such a beautiful voice._

_He watches her as she moves about the room, cradling the baby- Alexis, he remembers- her soft voice humming a familiar tune. She begins to voice the lullaby.  
  
_

_"Now it's time to say good night  
_ _Good night sleep tight  
_ _Now the sun turns out his light  
_ _Good night sleep tight."  
  
_

_David knows this song. They used to sing it together as he was going to bed when he was younger. His mother always stopped in before he fell asleep. She doesn’t anymore because she is so busy with television. He wonders if this was what it was like when he was just born- if she rocked him around the nursery in the middle of the night, just he and his mother alone together. He thinks that’s even more special than seeing her with Alexis_

_  
"Dream sweet dreams for me  
_ _Dream sweet dreams for you."  
  
_

_David finds himself slipping into the room. He wonders idly where Adelina is, but soon forgets the thought as his mother turns to face him. She looks radiant in the nighttime. David has always thought his mother was the most beautiful person he ever saw in his whole life. She has blue eyes and fair hair and David often wishes that he looked like she does._

_  
"Close your eyes and I'll close mine  
_ _Good night sleep tight  
_ _Now the moon begins to shine  
_ _Good night sleep tight."  
  
_

_He doesn’t realise he’s singing along until his mother stops singing. He looks up, wide eyed, not sure if he should run back to his room or stay rooted in his spot. He does neither, choosing instead to inch forward._

_“Big boys stay in their sleeping chambers, David.” His mother informs him plainly. She has stilled her rocking. David is right in front of her now and can see that Alexis is asleep again._

_“Can you sing to me, too?” He hears himself asking, his brown eyes looking up with wonder. He longs for his mother they way she was before Alexis and television. “Can you sing the Goodnight Song?”_

_His mother’s lips purse, but she shifts Alexis and holds out a hand for him to take. She leads him over to the big chair in the corner and leaves him there as she lays Alexis gently back in her crib. David watches as she waits for a few moments to make sure the infant doesn’t awaken. Her hand rests gently against Alexis’ chest._

_She turns back and he steps aside while she sits. She pulls him up onto her lap and he takes in the smell of her shampoo. Her brooch scratches softly against his temple._

_“Someday David, dear, you’ll look after Alexis the way that Mummy looked after you.” His mother’s soft voice cooes in his ear. Her manicured hand runs down the back of his head. She begins to hum again. Her chest vibrates against his ear. David snuggles against her breast, eyes gazing at his sister’s crib. His small lips move along with his mother’s words._

_  
"Now it's time to say good night  
_ _Good night sleep tight  
_ _Now the sun turns out his light  
_ _Good night sleep tight."  
  
_

* * *

  
David can’t quite move past the complete anger at the unfairness of their current situation to understand just what it is that makes his heart twist as he recalls this memory. It’s not as if his mother spent much time with him after Alexis was born, and not much time with either of them once Alexis was able to be in the full-time care of Adelina. But for some reason he holds on to the thought of his mother singing to him.

Alexis shifts in the bed next to him and he rolls his eyes, turning towards the wall. Alexis may have taken their mother away from him and Eli may have ripped their money from their hands but neither of them get to have the memories that he has. He turns back over to face her in the darkness. He can’t see her but he knows she’s there, for once not halfway across the world. His mother’s words echo in his ears and he knows she was right.

David listens once more through the thin wall to see if he can hear his mother. He can’t.

The little lullaby sticks in his head and he closes his eyes, envisioning his mother in that long satin robe, his hand in hers, swaying together.

 _"Dream sweet dreams for me.  
_ _Dream sweet dreams for me."_  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> You were all so sweet and encouraging to me when I posted my first fic (The Closet). You really made me feel so loved and I so appreciated your kind words! 
> 
> This was actually the very first Schitt’s Creek fic I ever wrote, over five years ago now, after seeing the The Drip. The lullaby is ‘Goodnight’ by The Beatles, which is a song my mother and grandmother would sing to me as a child. I kept this fic in its original form. There are some things I would change now, but I think it’s rather sweet as it is. :)


End file.
